Standing

We’ve been through this before

but this time we’re wiser

and will stand unflinching

as all those shapes pass through us —

those illusions of ourselves,

walking and moving

but absent our deep desire —

ourselves moving in tracks

set up to have us shuffle

mostly mindless,

mostly lifeless,

through our days

This time we won’t 

fall in step with them

For our roots reach down

so much deeper —

through rocks, through magma,

to the mingling with the very core of things,

And our crowns,

full as the most established of the guardian trees —

Our crowns dance with the stars.

©Wendy Mulhern

March 5, 2013